Source
Every figure on the SBA loans by state pages comes from the U.S. Small Business Administration's 7(a) and 504 FOIA loan files, published on data.sba.gov. We used the 7(a) file for FY2020 to present and the 504 file for FY2010 to present, both as of September 30, 2026. These are works of the U.S. government and in the public domain. FSE downloaded the files, computed the aggregates with a script and published the results without manual edits.
Window and definitions
- Fiscal year. SBA fiscal years run October 1 to September 30. FY2024 = October 2023 to September 2024; FY2026 = October 2025 to September 2026. The as-of date is the last day of FY2026, so all three years are complete.
- Approved. Every loan in the file for that fiscal year, including loans later cancelled. This is the basis of SBA's own published counts.
- Not cancelled. Approved loans whose status is not "cancelled". Profile figures (median size, rate, term, shares, lenders, sectors, places) use FY2024-FY2026 loans that were not cancelled. Recent loans can still be cancelled, so FY2026 "not cancelled" counts may drift down in later releases.
- State. The project state; where that is blank, the borrower's state. Pages cover the 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico. Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands (64 7(a) loans) count in national totals only.
- Loan amount is the gross amount approved. For 504 loans it is the CDC (SBA-backed) portion only; the bank's share of the project is not included.
- Rate is the initial interest rate; term is the term in months. Medians are used because a few very large loans pull averages up.
- Startup = "Startup, loan funds will open business". New = "New business or 2 years or less". Change of ownership and franchise (any franchise code) come straight from the file. SBA Express = processing method SBA Express or Export Express.
- Sector groups the 2-digit NAICS code (for example, 72 = restaurants and hotels). Sector medians appear only where a sector has at least 30 loans.
- Jobs supported is the figure reported on the loan at approval, summed. It is not a measure of jobs created.
- Charge-off rate uses FY2020 and FY2021 7(a) approvals that were not cancelled, the most seasoned years in the 7(a) file, and counts loans with status "charged off" as of September 30, 2026. The dollar rate divides gross charge-off amounts by gross approvals. Shown for a state only with at least 100 loans and 10 charge-offs.
- Lender share is a lender's count of loans divided by all not-cancelled loans in the state.
Privacy: aggregates only
SBA's files are loan-level and include borrower names and addresses. We never publish them. The pages and the CSV contain only totals, medians and shares. Any count under 10 loans is suppressed (top lenders, counties, cities, CDCs, franchise brands and fiscal-year cells), and no individual business is listed or described. The build is checked automatically for borrower names before every release.
Check against SBA's published totals
Gross 7(a) approvals in the FOIA file compared with the totals SBA and its official reports published:
| Fiscal year | FOIA file: loans | FOIA file: dollars | Published: loans | Published: dollars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2024 | 70,242 | $31.12B | 70,242 | $31.1B |
| FY2025 | 78,078 | $37.29B | 77,600 | $37B |
| FY2026 | 56,130 | $32.43B | 56,130 | $32.4B |
- FY2024: SBA's FY2024 year-end 7(a) lender activity report (data.sba.gov). Exact match.
- FY2025: SBA news release 25-83, September 30, 2025 (sba.gov), 77,600 7(a) loans for $37 billion and 6,750 504 loans for $7.8 billion. The file shows 78,078 loans (0.6% more) and 6,762 504 loans for $7.80B. The release came out on the last day of the fiscal year with rounded figures, before every final-day approval was recorded, which accounts for the small gap.
- FY2026: SBA-reported figures of 56,130 7(a) loans for $32.4 billion and $7.1 billion in 504 lending, as reported by American Banker on October 9, 2026 (americanbanker.com). Exact match on 7(a) count; the file's 504 total is $7.09B.
Our "not cancelled" counts are lower than these published totals by design: 7,702 FY2024, 14,124 FY2025 and 7,602 FY2026 approvals were later cancelled.
Why FY2026 lending fell
FY2026 7(a) approvals were 28.1% below FY2025 by count and 13.0% by dollars, while the median not-cancelled loan rose from $180K to $235K. The data lines up with three sourced events. We report the timing; we do not claim to measure how much each one contributed.
- Federal funding lapse, October 1 to November 12, 2025. SBA said the 43-day shutdown halted 7(a) and 504 approvals and kept $5.3 billion from about 10,000 small businesses (SBA, November 13, 2025). The file has no 7(a) approvals dated October 2025.
- SOP 50 10 8, effective June 1, 2025. SBA's new lending rules dropped the "Do What You Do" underwriting approach of 2023 and returned to stricter standards (SBA information notice; SBA, April 22, 2025). Monthly approvals in the file fell from 8,458 in May 2025 to 3,813 in June 2025.
- Citizenship and residency rule, effective March 1, 2026. SBA Policy Notice 5000-876441 requires 100% of owners to be U.S. citizens or U.S. nationals with their principal residence in the U.S., removing lawful permanent residents (GAO B-338157).
Limitations
- The data covers SBA-guaranteed loans only, not all small business lending.
- Approval is not disbursement; some approved loans fund later, partly or not at all.
- SBA updates the files quarterly, and later releases can revise statuses, especially for recent loans.
- Lender names are shown as SBA records them; a bank that merged or renamed during the period can appear under one name.
- Rates are starting rates. Most 7(a) loans are variable, so payments move with the base rate after approval.
Download
The state-level aggregates are available as a CSV: sba-state-aggregates-fy2024-2026.csv. You may reuse it; please cite "FSE analysis of SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA data as of September 30, 2026" and link to this page.